Rob Thomas Discusses Mixing Alcohol With Songwriting

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One of this year’s most anticipated album releases is the return of Matchbox Twenty with North – their first studio album in almost a decade. Frontman Rob Thomas recently spoke with Alice@97.3/San Francisco about the writing process and how alcohol helped it along.

Thomas and the rest of the band spent time in Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville crafting the music for the new album in a much different way then in past efforts.

“In the past I wrote everything and brought it to the band,” Thomas said. “This is the first time it was more collaborative.”

Once they had a batch of “30 or 40″ song ideas, the band rented a space in Nashville and spent a few months finding the direction of the album.

“It really was just us drinking ourselves into oblivion for three months,” he said. “And fighting.”

Their drink of choice to find inspiration during the time?

“For us, for some reason, it was really just red wine.”

Thomas continued to joke, “Funny ’cause you start drinking and there is a creative point where you are drinking and it is like, ‘Wow this is amazing’ and you are feeling free and creative. And then at some point it switches and it’s over. Now we are just bumbling idiots with guitars.”